BFTE Cosmetics in Mermaid, Clara & Dragon Slayer Swatches (and Dupes!)

Hi!

I am so sorry I haven't been posting. Everything in my life has been crazy lately, I have been working 60 hour weeks & trying to workout for an hour each night, so I have no time. But I will be trying to post more often. I also wanted let you know that I created a fitblr (fitness tumblr) so if you have Tumblr, make sure you follow me here!

I'll be doing a post today on the gold I received from BFTE in my last order. All of the golds are swatched below along with descriptions from BFTE websites (if there is a description). All are applied dry first & then foiled with BFTE Mix & Seal:

Mermaid - Shimmery light gold with soft blue-green duo-chrome.

Clara (No Description) - Shimmery gold, very close to Mermaid with more shimmer & lighter, great highlight color when applied dry.

Dragon Slayer (No Description) - Vibrant copper, when foiled it looks like a copper penny!

Mermaid is so pretty, I always pick golds because they work well with my skin tone. It goes on quite light when dry but when you foil it the color is so metallic & bright.

Clara is very shimmery, it almost blends right into my skin tone when applied dry, I'm not sure how I  feel about this color, I like it but I am not sure how to wear it.

Dragon Slayer is amazing! I love coppers & the more metallic, the better. This color is gorgeous when foiled!

I didn't realize that I had a color almost exactly like Dragon Slayer in my collection, but Fyrinnae's Gilded Wings is almost a perfect match!

I feel like Gilded Wings is less orange and a little less bright than Dragon Slayer. I like Gilded Wings better dry than Dragon Slayer. However, I like Dragon Slayer better when foiled.

You can see that they are very close, Gilded Wings dry is not quite as blotchy & when foiled it is lighter in color. Dragon Slayer dry is blah, but you when foiled it comes alive! 

Thanks for stopping by!

*Krystle

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you're enjoying your day! This look is actually from last night, we went out to celebrate my friends birthday. I love green & any holiday that gives me an excuse to wear green is good in my book!

Here was last nights look:

Eyes:

UDPP

MAC "All That Glitters" over entire lid

MAC "Lucky Green" on crease and outer lid

MAC "Humid" on outer corner

MAC "Vanilla" on brow bone

Maybelline Lash Stiletto Liquid Liner in Blackest Black

Maybelline Turbo Lash Waterproof Mascara in Blackest Black

NYX Slim Liner Pencil in "White Pearl" on lower waterline

Brows:

elf Eyebrow Kit in "Light"

Milani Brow Fix in "Light"

Face:

MAC Studio Fix Powder Plus in NC25

MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NC20

MAC Powder Blush in "Pink Swoon"

MAC Bronzer in "Refined Gold"

Lips:

MAC Lipstick in "Snob"

For my hair, I just used a 1" curling iron & spiraled my hair away from my face, teased the back & sprayed with "Big Sexy Spray & Play".

My Husband & I! :)

I always go grocery shopping on Sundays & I was so proud that I bought almost all fresh fruits & vegetables. Now, I did buy a few things not pictured, low sodium broth & whole wheat noodles.

Pictured Below:

Cutie's Mandarin Oranges (a favorite morning snack)

100 Calorie Vanilla Greek yogurt

Cucumber

Strawberries

Blueberries

Campari Tomatoes

Snow Peas

Broccoli

Asparagus

Sugar Snap Peas

Green Beans

Baby Carrots

Spinach

Romaine Salad Mix

Celery

Bananas

Cabbage

These are the fruits & vegetables that I will eat this week. My husband refuses to eat any fruits or vegetables (how he manages to stay so skinny boggles my mind!) but I love all fruits & all vegetables. They are low in calories, super healthy & the perfect snack!
I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!
*Krystle

MAC Snob, Diva & Candy Yum Yum Swatches & Review

I still have a few more posts for the BFTE swatches but I thought I would take a break & show you my new MAC lipsticks. 

I purchased these a few weeks ago, I wanted a few new eye shadows & I thought I would add some fun lipsticks to my collection since it's free shipping on orders over $150 for MAC Pro.

So the colors that I purchased were:
Candy Yum Yum (Matte) - Neon Pink

Diva (Matte) - Intense reddish-burgundy

Snob (Satin)- Light neutral pink

Here are the colors swatched on my arm: Candy Yum Yum, Diva & Snob.

Candy Yum Yum:

I've wanted this color for so long but every time I went to place an order it was sold out & MAC was only carrying it for a short period of time. Well, right before I was getting ready to order, I got an email saying that it would now be part of the permanent line. To me, this is the epitome of a "Barbie" pink. It's bright & absolutely gorgeous! I will rock the SHIT (excuse my language) of this color. Plus, it's matte & I adore MAC's matte lipsticks. Actually, I think I may wear this color out tonight...

Diva:

I went back & forth on whether or not I should buy this color. I don't own any colors even close, I tend to stay with neutrals or REALLY bright but not darker colors. I have fair skin so I get scared that I will look weird! However, I bought this because I don't have anything like this. It's such a nice burgundy red but I still feel like I can wear this with a lighter colored eye look. Maybe I'll be daring & use it with a pin up smoky eye since I feel like it could take the place of bright red!

Snob:

My friend (who is also a makeup fanatic) told me that I had to have Snob. I love it & it's wearable for day or night. I feel like it gives the perfect neutral lip without looking to light. Myth is a favorite of mine, but when I am not tan it really washes my skin out so this is the perfect color to replace it for winter. It's very close to my natural lip color so it looks really nice with a darker eye look. 

So these are the new colors that I added to my collection.

Have you tried any of these colors?

*Krystle

BFTE Cosmetics in 1939, Peacock, Illusion & Blue Bird Swatches (and Dupes!)

Another BFTE post!

Here's the blues that I purchased in my most recent BFTE haul. They offer a color of the week, which is an amazing deal. You get one full sized color which is the color of the week & 3 samples for $6. That is like getting 3 free samples & you get to choose the sample colors! The color of the week when I purchased was 1939, which was on my list of samples I was planning on purchasing. I also got a 16 piece sample set for $29, which came packaged in a cute metal tin!

The colors I purchased in the blue category are listed below along with descriptions from BFTE websites (if there is a description). All are applied dry first & then foiled with BFTE Mix & Seal:

1939- Dark green with black undertones and green sparkles. 

Peacock- Mid-tone teal-blue with golden green shimmer.

Illusion - Dark green Biased Teal, really breathtaking applied wet.

Blue Bird - Bright blue with very good coverage.

1939 is a really gorgeous dark greenish black with green/teal sparkles.  Peacock is one of my favorites, such a gorgeous blue with aqua shimmer. Illusion is also a favorite, it's not quite teal but not quite blue. Blue Bird is fabulous, it's not too impressive when applied dry but when foiled, it's so bright & awesome.

You can see the difference below of a full sized jar vs. a sample size. Full size jars are typically $6.50, sample jars are $2. I usually buy sample jars because they come with enough product for me to use on a non regular basis. (I'm not kidding between, BFTE, Fyrinnae & GDE, I have well over 100 samples.) Full size come with a sifter & a nifty little logo-ed top.

I also chose a few dupes to go with Illusion & Blue Bird.

I chose Island Chic by GDE as a dupe for Illusion & Bird? Plane?

Island Chic is a little lighter in the pan but it looks fairly close to Illusion when in the jar. Bird? Plane? is lighter in the pan, Blue Bird is much brighter in the jar.

Well, Island Chic is not a good dupe. Haha! Illusion is much darker but still has that teal shimmer in it. Bird? Plane? & Blue Bird are very close, especially when foiled. Blue Bird is much brighter, even when dry, but you can clearly see how close they are.

Well, these are the blues. Blues are always my favorite & these are so gorgeous.

I hope you like them!

*Krystle

BFTE Cosmetics in Green Apple, Lavish, Cat Eye and Lemon Swatches (and Dupes!)

Hi!

So I placed an order with BFTE (Beauty from the Earth) last week & I received it on Friday. I decided to swatch them in groupings & also include any possible dupes that I could find in my collection (I chose between Glamour Doll Eyes & Fyrinnae shadows). I'm starting with greens & yellows in this post.

All descriptions are from BFTE website unless there is no description & then I'll try my best to describe the color:

Green Apple: Bright shimmery grass green with lighter green shimmer.

Lavish: Green-Yellow with medium sheen.

Cat Eye (No Description Available): Grey green with lighter grass green shimmer.

Lemon: Bright Clean Shimmery Yellow; Not too cool, not too warm Perfectly balanced yellow. Almost metallic applied wet.

All of these are sample sizes & they were $2 each. BFTE offers flat rate $4 shipping which is nice. I do love BFTE because their selection is amazing, it's almost overwhelming because they offer SO MANY different colors. Their samples are smaller than Fyrinnae, but they are $2.75 , they are also smaller than Glamour Doll Eyes (GDE) but their samples are $2.50 each. You can see each color swatched below, first dry & then with BFTE Mix & Seal.

I purchased a lot of basic colors that I don't own. I loved Green Apple, I found it on their Facebook page, Lavish is much more green than the swatch above shows. Cat Eye was sent to me in place of Kiss the Frog which was out of stock (Crystal, the owner, personally called me to ask if I wanted another color. How nice is that!? I told her to surprise me!) Lemon is a basic yellow which I don't own or have anything close to.

I chose 1 dupe for each of the shadows since I tend to have more greens in my collection than most other colors. Keep in mind, I chose these while they were in the jar, I know some of them aren't even close when swatched!

I chose GDE Mackinac as a dupe for Green Apple. You can see they are very close, Green Apple is more green with brighter shimmer.  I chose GDE Oddity for Lavish which was more green but I really didn't have anything closer to this color! Lavish is closer to a chartuese, Oddity is much more green with less shimmer.

Greeen Apple & Mackinac are so close!

I chose GDE Going green as a dupe for Lemon, it is lighter, more shimmery & a tad greener. I picked Fyrinnae's Are You My Mummy for a dupe of Cat Eye. Are You My Mummy is an Arcane Shadow, so it's a douchrome & looks different at each angle but it's the closet color I can find in my collection!! As you can see, Cat Eye is much more grey toned.

 I can't choose a favorite between GDE, Fyrinnae or BFTE, they all have awesome products & samples that are super cheap but give you plenty of product.

I've got like 6 more of these posts that I will get finished over the next week. 
Also, if you have any requests for posts that you would like to see, feel free to leave me a comment & let me know!
*Krystle

Healthy Eating (plus my Meal Plan)

I think last week I did a post on how I have been eating really healthy. I haven't been weighing myself lately because find that I get too caught up in the number on the scale. I also haven't been working out because my gym membership doesn't renew until tomorrow, so I have been staying between 1200-1400 calories. I weighed myself for the first time in 11 days & I am down 8.6 pounds! I am so excited & motivated!

I started at 163 pounds (the heaviest I have been in a LONG time) and today my scale hit 154.4 pounds. I have also been eating 8 servings of vegetables & 2 servings of fruit (only with breakfast), drinking a gallon of water a day & not eating after 10 pm. 

I have found that the more vegetables I eat, the less hungry I feel. My snacks consist of celery, carrots & campari tomatoes (my favorite!). I also gave myself a cheat meal today which was Panera Bread broccoli cheddar bread bowl but I ate healthy the rest of today & stayed under 1400 calories.

I feel like a cheat meal each week keeps me sane & I actually look forward to having something "bad". My husband & I also cook at home each night. A few days ago we did a beef roast in the oven with taco seasoning & made beef tacos. We have been trying not to waste anything, so we used the leftovers & made beef, brown rice & pinto bean bowls. I used 1/2 cup brown rice (made with vegetable broth), 1/2 cup pinto beans & 3 ounces of the roast, I loaded it with lettuce & tomatoes, threw about and 1/8 of a cup of reduced fat cheddar cheese, 2 tablespoons of light sour cream (I hate fat free) & a teaspoon of Cholula Hot Sauce. It was so delicious, easy & filling, in fact, I ate the rest of the rice & beans for lunch today.

I found a recipe for Skinny Cheesy Vegetable Chowder & decided I have to try it. You can find the original recipe here. It's full of veggies & it tastes delicious. So here's my run down for breakfast, lunch & dinner tomorrow:

Breakfast (I eat at 2pm because I am not a morning person!):

1 cup Multi Grain Cheerios

1/2 cup Lactaid 2% milk

100 grams of fresh strawberries

2 Cuties mandarin oranges

Lunch # 1 (I eat this at 5pm):

1/2 cup pinto beans

1/2 cup brown rice

1/4 cup reduced fat shredded, mild cheddar

2 tablespoons of light sour cream

1 teaspoon of Cholula Hot Sauce

1 cup of romaine lettuce

1/4 of a cucumber

Lunch #2 (I eat this at 7 pm):

1 cup Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

2 cups of romaine lettuce

5 campari tomatoes

2 tablespoons of light Hidden Valley Ranch dressing

3 oz of baby carrots

Dinner ( I eat this at 9 pm because I work 12-8 most days):

3 oz. of extra lean ground beef

1 whole wheat hamburger roll

1 teaspoon of Hellman's Mayo (I will only eat this kind!)

1 tablespoon of sugar free Heinz ketchup

1 cup of frozen green beans (5 sprays of I Can't Believe it's not Butter)

3 celery stalks

This is a little less clean than I usually eat, but I have been craving cereal SO bad. The total calorie intake for tomorrow is 1427, 3 servings of fruit & 10 servings or vegetables.

I hope this helps!
*Krystle

Wet n Wild MegaLast Liquid Lip Colors for Spring 2013 Swatches & Review in Click On My Hyperlink & Back To The Fuchsia

Today I will be reviewing the Wet n Wild MegaLast Liquid Lip Colors in Click On My Hyperlink & Back To The Fuchsia. I picked these up at my locale K-Mart for $2.99 each.

Here's what Wet n Wild has to say about these lip colors:

Intense liquid color with built-in moisturizer provides one-step application for weightless, ultra-conditioning wear that lasts up to 8 hours. ElastiSilk™ formula combines flexible color adhesion with silky-smooth pigments for transfer-proof, even application. Paraben-free formula conditions and moisturizes with vitamin E that helps promote anti-aging, protects the skin's moisture barrier, and balances the lip's natural hydration for a healthy-looking, plump pout all day.

In all honesty, I haven't heard anything about these lip colors or seen them before so I had no idea what to expect. I chose the 2 colors that stuck out the most (of course, a bright fuchsia & a bright pink!). The packaging is super cute, it's slick & simple. 

I will start with Back to the Fuchsia. This color is so gorgeous, it reminds me of  MAC's Impassioned lipstick. I thought these were more of a gloss but I was wrong. They are almost exactly like NYX's Matte Lip Creams in consistency. I tried to wipe this off with a regular tissue and it did not budge, not even a little. I actually had to use makeup remover to remove this. 

As you can see, Back to the Fuchsia is bright fuchsia creme. It does go on a little streaky but the color payoff is so amazing. It comes with a doe tip wand, one thing worth mentioning is that the wand comes out with a lot of product on it. Also, they do not have a nice smell but once they dry they don't have a scent at all.

 

Back to the Fuchsia & Click On My Hyperlink

Click On My Hyperlink:

Holy Barbie Pink! I cannot even tell you how bright this color is. This is a bright neon pink. It reminds me of NYX's Narcissus or a lighter version of MAC's Candy Yum Yum.  This color gives you a better idea of what the colors "dry" to. They are pretty matte & I have noticed they can be a little drying on the lips. I don't know if I could pull this color off, it's REALLLLLY bright (but super gorgeous!)

You can see how much product is on the wand in the picture above. I tried to blot this color on a tissue after it had dried & nothing transferred, so this would be great for a night out when you don't want to reapply your lip color every 10 minutes. 

They come in 13 different colors & I would certainly purchase them again. I love cheap products that work! I have to give Wet n Wild major credit, they have made their products amazing & are one of the cheapest brands on the market. Kudos to them!

Have you tried any of the Wet n Wild MegaLast Liquid Lip Colors?

*Krystle

New Shoe Rack!

Hi!

I thought I'd give you a tour of my favorite items in my house, SHOES!

I don't know if I mentioned it, but my work moved on February 1st to a building that is 5 times bigger than our old building was. Everyone was super excited because we got all new everything & we moved to a much more central location. ( I am not kidding, the old building was in a super small town with NOTHING close by!) Anyway, they had a silent action to sell a ton of stuff that was no longer needed for the new building & I bought these huge racks (I picked up 2 because I thought they were much smaller than they are!)

I have been looking for something to put my shoes on for months without spending an arm & a leg. I almost purchased a book case but it was really big & heavy. I know we'll be buying a house in the next few years and I try to keep that in mind when buying things. (Big & Heavy = major pain in the ass to move!) My work had these plastic racks & I scored them for $5 each (they are $20-$30 in stores). I put one to good use for my heels and wedges. 

Here is the larger rack:

I also took the time to rearrange my boots. My walk in closet in our town house came with these awesome built in steps.

And here's all of my wedges & heels. I still have to store my flats in bins, you can see one in the picture below. But I have 3 bins filled with flats & flip flops. I am so obsessed with my shoes! :)

Butters is also obsessed with my shoes, he likes to climb all over them at night & knock them down during the day. He's lucky he's handsome!

How do you store your shoes?

*Krystle